The Shawl

“Her name was Aanakwad, which means cloud, and like a cloud she was changeable. She was moody and sullen one moment, her lower lip jutting and her eyes flashing, filled with storms. The next, she would shake her hair over her face and blow it straight out in front of her to make her children scream with laughter.”

This quote illustrates Erdrich’s use of figurative language to shape her characters. Aanakwad’s moodiness and quick temper are described using simile (“like a cloud”) and metaphor (“eyes flashing, filled with storms”). Utilizing weather and storm imagery in this manner paints a richer picture of Aanakwad and crafts a bolder, more impactful description than had she just used words like “changeable” and “sullen.” Using natural imagery also connects the characters to their environment, which plays an important role in Anishinaabeg culture.

“In those days, people lived widely scattered, along the shores and in the islands, even out on the plains. There were no roads then, just trails, though we had horses and wagons and, for the winter, sleds.”

This passage depicts life in Anishinaabeg communities prior to urbanization. This kind of rural, sparsely populated environment is a more culturally appropriate way of life for the Anishinaabeg. Erdrich explicitly shows the reader, through her discussions of violence, trauma, and alcoholism, that forced movement into towns and cities was not a positive change for Indigenous communities and, in addition to the conflict that Aanakwad brings to “The Shawl,” urbanization functions as another key threat to Anishinaabeg families.